New Delhi, April 18 (IANS) Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, under pressure to quit over the Kochi IPL row, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at his residence here Sunday.

Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi confirmed the meeting but gave no details.

The meeting, a day after the prime minister returned from Brazil, comes ahead of a Congress leadership meeting scheduled Sunday evening to decide the minister's fate.

The evening meeting will be attended by the prime minister, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and senior ministers.

The opposition has demanded that Tharoor should either resign from the council of ministers or be sacked for allegedly trying to influence the selection of the Indian Premier League (IPL) Kochi cricket franchise.

Tharoor has refuted the charge but the involvement of one of his friends, a woman, in the Kochi franchise has dented his denial.

The controversy was sparked after IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi said that the minister's friend, Sunanda Pushkar, got sweat equity in a company that is part of a consortium that won the Kochi franchise.